Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Orion ōrīˈən [key], in Greek mythology, Boeotian hunter. When Oenopion delayed giving his daughter Merope to him, Orion, when drunk, violated her. Oenopion then blinded him, but his vision was res...

(Encyclopedia) dog days, name for the most sultry period of summer, from about July 3 to Aug. 11. Named in early times by observers in countries bordering the Mediterranean, the period was reckoned as extending from...

(Encyclopedia) Cheyenne Mountain, c.9,565 ft (2,915 m), in the Front Range of the Rocky Mts., El Paso co., central Colo., SW of Colorado Springs. Halfway up the mountain, in North Cheyenne Park, is the Shrine of the...

(Encyclopedia) snow line, altitude above which or latitude beyond which snow does not melt in summer (usually called the permanent snow line), or, in winter, the line to which snow extends at a given point in time. ...

(Encyclopedia) Samson, in the Bible, judge of Israel. His long hair was a symbol of his vows to God, and because of this covenant Samson was strong. The enemies of his people, the Philistines, accomplished his destr...

(Encyclopedia) Gibeon gĭbˈēən [key], ancient town, 5 mi (8 km) NNW of Jerusalem. The Book of Joshua relates that its inhabitants established a treaty with the invading Israelites, resulting in their servitude to...

(Encyclopedia) planetary system, a star and all the celestial bodies bound to it by gravity, especially planets and their natural satellites. Until the last decade of the 20th cent., the only planetary system known ...

(Encyclopedia) Cullen, Countee kounˈtēˈ [key], 1903–46, American poet, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. 1925, M.A. Harvard, 1926. A major writer of the Harlem Renaissance—a flowering of black artistic a...

(Encyclopedia) Harris, Barbara Clementine, 1930–2020, American Episcopal bishop, b. Philadelphia. An African American, Harris was active in the civil-rights movement in the 1960s (and remained active in social cau...

(Encyclopedia) Shapley, Harlow shăpˈlē [key], 1885–1972, American astronomer, b. Nashville, Mo., grad. Univ. of Missouri, 1910, Ph.D. Princeton, 1913. He was astronomer at Mt. Wilson Observatory from 1914 to 19...